September 18, 2013

Dear Editor:

Thank you for printing a great article about my friend Christine McDonald in your edition this week. I got to know Christine before she moved to the St Louis area, here in the Northeast at Norton Heights Community of Christ congregation.

We at Norton Heights church were very pleased to have Christine as part of our church family for several years as she worked her way into a new life getting off of the hard living on the Avenue. Christine was instrumental almost single handedly in starting an outreach program at Norton Heights Community of Christ congregation that distributes brown bag lunches and bottled water two times a month to folks out on Independence Avenue (our church is one block from Independence Avenue on Norton Street).  

Part of the outreach that she helped organize (which was her idea originally) not only provides a simple lunch with no stipulations attached, but seasonally we also distribute toiletries, socks, gloves, and hats. We at Norton Heights church still continue Brown Bag Ministry but we certainly miss our Christine who was inspired to begin helping the people she knew who continue to be our neighbors on Independence Avenue.

Leon D Berg

Historic Northeast